1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to wireless communication devices that are configured to communicate across non-IMS packet based wide area data networks, and more particularly to a system and method for limiting data based voice enabled communication to a predetermined group of service providers for at least a predetermined time.
2. Background Art
Communication technology is constantly evolving. For instance, there was a time where the only way to make a telephone call was across a copper wire with the assistance of a human operator. Today, by contrast, people are able to call others around the world with a variety of communication devices, including cellular telephones, satellite telephones, and network-based communication systems such as voice over Internet protocol phone devices that function with the assistance of a computer or other specialized hardware. In addition to these voice-based channels, people may communicate via electronic mail, text messaging, video conferences, and multimedia messaging as well.
With the advent of new communication protocols and technologies, device manufacturers are continually designing more features into their handsets. Similarly, service providers are continually upgrading their networks to accommodate these new features. By way of example, most mobile telephones offered by service providers today include both text and multimedia messaging in addition to voice capabilities.
Service providers often find it helpful in attracting new customers, or in enticing existing customers to upgrade existing service or hardware, to subsidize the customer's purchase of new hardware. In subsidization, the service provider pays a portion of the customer's hardware purchase price. Such a practice is helpful to consumers because multi-feature handsets tend to be sophisticated devices, and the subsidization lowers the overall price to the consumer. This subsidization is generally in return for the customer agreeing to patronize the service provider for a predetermined time, such as one or two years.
For subsidization to be economically viable for the service provider, the service provider needs assurance that the customer will continue to patronize the service provider for at least the predetermined time. Some methods, sometimes called “subsidy locks”, are known in the art. For instance, in conventional cellular telephone systems, such as Global Systems for Telecommunications (GSM) systems, one known method of ensuring that the customer uses only the service provider's network is to employ a lock for restricting registration onto a mobile phone network to only those mobile phones that contain a subscriber interface module (SIM) card that has a international mobile subscriber identification (IMSI) which corresponds to an IMSI recognized by the service provider. One example of such a conventional GSM subsidization process may be found in the specification GSM 02.22 Personalization of GSM Mobile equipment, V7.0.0 1999 (Release 1998).
While such a system works well for conventional mobile communications, new communication methods, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other applications including e-mail over voice over data network communications, may or may not require SIM cards for communication. Further, conventional subsidization methods are ineffective for some new technologies because the required profiles and attributes are not stored in a SIM card. There is thus a need for an improved method and system—for services such as VoIP—for providers of new communication methods to ensure that customers use subsidized hardware with the service provider's network systems for at least the predetermined usage period.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.